Mason Bee House

I’ve always kept my distance from bees, I’ll blame it on a horror movie that I stupidly watched by myself when I was home sick from school. I’ve never been stung before, nor do I really care to purposely put myself in a situation where I might be.

But uh…..colony collapse? I’m more freaked out about that then a little sting. While I’ll leave the full scale beekeeping to my heroes, naked beekeeping to this brave one, and fighting against honey laundering to these guys — I thought perhaps we could provide a place to nest for Orchard Mason Bees. We hung this guy up 2 days ago.

What are Orchard Mason Bees?

(photo from Naturewide Images) Mason bees don’t produce honey, but do play an important role in pollinating, especially fruit trees – according to Gardener’s Supply, each bee visits as many as 1000 blooms per day — 20 times as many as a honeybee. Best part about mason bees? THEY ARE LESS LIKELY TO STING!!!!

In North America, they are blue-green (pretty!) and are smaller than honeybees — they kinda look like house flies.

The mason bee lay their eggs in small hollow spaces, like reeds, cracks in wood and even snail shells. The mason bees are gentle, hard working but don’t get the attention or glory that honey bees get (poor guys!)

We placed our bamboo mason bee house in the garden area – it hangs from the roof of the chicken coop – within 2 days we saw bee activity.

The mason bee places a mud plug near the edge of the hole and then goes back and forth between flower and house to collect nectar and pollen for food for her larva. Once she’s done, the hole is completely plugged with more mud.

The female lays her eggs – mama knows which eggs will be male and which will be female – the males are laid near the entrance and the females are near the back. Why? Because the females are more important and the males are more expendable (I swear I’m not making this up) so they’re near the front in case a predator comes by and breaks through the plug or if bad weather comes around, the females are more protected in the back.

Within a few days, the larva will hatch and eat up the pollen buffet before they spin a cocoon to hang out until the Spring.

Male bees hatch first and they chew their way out of the mud plug. Females follow a few days later.

Pretty darn cool, huh?

I was hoping to catch a bee inside (we saw a few yesterday working on this plug)

I’m hoping within a couple of weeks, we’ll have full occupancy.

There’s plenty of room, awesome view and rent is cheap (just don’t sting me) in the good part of town.

Even if you don’t have a yard, I hope you consider hanging one of these up outside – bee keeping can be as easy as this!

I’m allergic to bees but have thought about getting Mason bees for all the various fruit trees and bushes I’ve been putting in. I’ve heard they’re much less likely to sting. That house is such a beautiful design, I may just give it a try!

Oh my gosh, now that I see them up close, I’m positive that I’ve seen them in the summer… I always thought they were just large, loud houseflies!

When I first saw the picture of your Mason Bee House, I assumed it was made of wine corks. I’m looking into buying one myself, that is extremely cheap. Thanks for sharing this! (…and I loved the honey badger reference, ha!)

There aren’t “killer bees.” The sooner you accept that cheap media and movie sensationalism the sooner you can accept that most of the food you eat is assisted by bees.

In Florida, Texas and the Southern part of the United States you have a higher population of Africanized Bees. These bees are more defensive and are more productive in the hot and humid climates, unlike the European families of Honey Bee that populate California through the Midwest into the the North East region of America.

Africanized Bees are more defensive, but many countries, have their honey crops from these bees.

Honey bees do not sting unless being trapped or threatened while away from the hive…

So if you’re getting stung by bees you’re either… #1 messing around with their hive in some way #2 have one trapped in a piece of clothing or your hair #3 harassing the bee my attempting to grab, trap or harm her.

Bees die through disembowelment when they sting you. Their venom sac and entrails are attached to the stinger as it remains in your body and they fly off. So for a bee to actually give up their life they have to feel like they (or their hive) are in mortal danger.

Someone just gave me a mason bee house just like yours. When do you put it out? It is October now we are cleaning our garden out and preparing it for winter. I see that you had it out in February, so the first of the year? Or is right now okay? Thanks!!! Love your post!!